


i love the way you laugh

by makesmewannatsss



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Coming Out, Fluff, M/M, just cute high school boys being cute with their cute crushes, nouis as bffs and also louis/gemma as bffs :), there's no smut so not really underage it's all fluff but they're 15/17
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-29
Updated: 2015-06-29
Packaged: 2018-04-06 18:17:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4231899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/makesmewannatsss/pseuds/makesmewannatsss
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“Think we can blow the classroom up?” Louis whispers.</i>
</p><p> </p><p>  <i>Harry snorts, covering his mouth quickly and earning a glance from their teacher.</i></p><p>  <i>“Well? Do you wanna?” Louis teases with a grin.</i></p><p>  <i>...All of a sudden Harry is reaching across him as quickly as he can and grabbing the vial out of his hands…Just as their bottle bubbles over. And by bubbles, Louis realizes that there are literal bubbles, colored a tinge yellow and getting all...over…their desk.</i></p><p>  <i>It smells kind of weird, too.</i></p><p>  <i>“Fuck,” Harry curses under his breath and, wow, okay – maybe not the moment for this but Louis realizes just how much he appreciates that word out of Harry’s mouth.</i></p><p>  <i>Behind them, Louis can hear Niall laugh his arse off and whip out his phone to take pictures. “Gemma’s gonna love these!” he shouts. </i></p>
            </blockquote>





	i love the way you laugh

**Author's Note:**

> I hope this fulfills the prompt in a way my recipient likes! 
> 
> I didn't want to mess with the age gap and deviate from when they were born, so Harry is ahead a year in science and Louis was held back at one point when he was young. Basically Louis is 17 but in Year 11 (with Niall) and Harry is 15 in Year 10. I hope that isn't too confusing!
> 
> :)

_“And I’ll look after you…”_

Louis shifts, slowly coming to his senses as he unfortunately realizes that he is not, in fact, crooning at David Beckham on a lovely island at a dinky karaoke divebar, and that the sun in his eyes isn’t a glorious beach-side sunset but instead the usual early-morning glow coming from his bedroom window. It’s also nine in the morning instead of nine at night, which makes him shoot up as fast as his alarm song was slow.

He likes waking up to soothing tones, what can he say? It only kicks him in the arse every now and then.

He grabs his phone as he jumps out of bed, officially late to school, only to be greeted by a text from his mother – **Had to head off to the hospital a bit early, Lottie will wake you before Sarah comes to pick her up. Yes, I know you set an alarm. Still.**

Louis groans as he realizes that his sisters have been picked up by their friend and are sitting in their classes right now, having completely forgot about him. Not that he needs his sister to wake him up in the mornings anyway, but, well – what’s a night owl to do?

Cutting his losses, Louis brushes his teeth quickly, uses the toilet, and forgoes a shower, throwing the first pair of jeans and t-shirt that he finds on his way back from the bathroom before he picks up his backpack and heads out to the car. Breakfast will have to be skipped today.

He gets to school by 9:30 – hey, at least he missed rush hour – and flashes his ID quickly at the security guard as she gives him an exasperated sigh and opens the gate.

It’s not as if Louis is _always late_ , but it…occurs enough that an exasperated sigh every now and then is warranted.

He makes his way to his locker quickly enough, blending into the crowd as the first period after homeroom ends.

He rounds a corner and comes up on his classroom, finding Niall as they walk in. He gives the blonde-brunette a swift slap on the arse, making him whip around, ready to return the slap back until he notices that it’s Louis.

“Morning mate,” he says as they slide into their seats, Niall in the first row and Louis directly behind him. “You’re late.”

“Lottie didn’t wake me up,” Louis mumbles as he slides his maths textbook out of his backpack and lets the bag fall to the ground, kicking it under his seat. “Alarm…malfunctioned.”

Niall snorts.

“I didn’t miss anything, did I?”

“Nah, you’re fine, she just went over the review sheet basically. If you do it for Friday you’ll be good.”

“Perfect. Love you, Niall,” Louis drawls into his friend’s ear just as their teacher walks into the room and starts to set up shop at his desk.

By the time the period ends and Niall and Louis pack up to head to Biology Louis is wishing that he’d had time to make a cup of tea or coffee or, quite frankly, anything caffeinated before leaving the house.

“’M tired,” he whines to Niall as they push their way through the crowded hall.

“You slept in,” his friend points out while he waves to one of his other friends that Louis hangs out with occasionally. Zayn or Liam, he thinks.

Louis yawns pointedly just for the sake of it. “Can’t help me body.”

“Well I think my mum said that sleeping too much can make you tired too,” Niall says. “If we had more time I’d sneak off to the cafeteria with you, get one of the lunch ladies to make you a cuppa. Sorry.”

Louis can’t help but ‘aww’ softly at that – Niall is nothing but loyal and good-hearted, really, and he couldn’t ask for a better best mate. “No need to apologize, Neil,” he says, clapping a hand across his friend’s back. “Lunch is in a bit.”

They find their seats at their usual lab table and start to get their equipment ready.

“Do you know what we’re doing today?” Louis asks as Niall passes him a pair of safety goggles from the shelf next to him. Louis takes them, playfully snapping the elastic against Niall’s head, earning an over-exaggerated groan out of the other boy. “You can get me next time,” Louis concedes as he puts the goggles down for the time being.

“I think we’re starting that new unit,” Niall says, answering the question and paging through his planner – Louis never understands how he keeps up with it, he always means to do one himself but loses track of everything a week or two into the year and just writes random notes into Niall’s – “Yeah, it’s an outdoorsy thing. Group project. We might have a lab today, so I’m just getting it out in case.”

“Dibs on the Irishman!” Louis says much more loudly than necessary, standing up to make his point just as their teacher walks into the room.

He gives Louis a laugh as he sets his satchel down by his desk, saying, “Getting overly excited for the new project, Tomlinson?”

Louis coughs lightly and takes a seat.

“It’s a three-person effort this time around, so I’m going to be pairing you up,” their teacher continues as he welcomes the stragglers in and shuts the door.

“Sir, you can’t not let me and Niall-” Louis starts to protest before he’s interrupted.

“Don’t worry, Louis, I’m not here to split up any dream teams. I worked it out last night, you and Niall are together.”

Louis turns to his friend and shoots him a shit-eating grin. Niall rolls his eyes, semi-amusedly in response.

“Styles, can you join them? Like I said, it’s a three-parter.”

He continues on rattling a list of names off to the rest of the class, and for a moment Louis looks around the room, wondering when Gemma joined their biology class, nearly missing a curly, mop-headed kid scoot his seat up beside Louis on the aisle.

Niall reaches behind Louis, giving the kid a squeeze on the shoulder. “Heya, Harry.”

Louis blinks, then realizes the obvious – Gemma’s not in their class, of course he would have known about this. This is her younger brother, the one who’s always sprawled out on the couch playing video games or texting or doing whatever fifteen-year-olds do these days when he comes over to study or hang out with Gemma.

“Hi Harold,” Louis chirps. “Since when are you in Year 11 bio?”

Harry bites his lip, rummaging around in his bag for a notebook and pen. “Erm, always? I think. Yeah, always.”

“He’s been here all year, mate, where’ve you been?” Niall adds with an eyeroll.

Louis takes his own book out, thinking, and has a ‘duh’ moment of realization as he remembers that just last week he was discussing photosynthesis with Harry over at Gemma’s. “Sorry Harold. I knew that. Kind of a mess today, slept through me alarm.”

Harry shrugs, wiggling around in his seat some more. Louis can’t help but notice how his curls keep bouncing every time he moves. They’re springier than usual today. Maybe. He likes them, okay? “It’s good. Don’t worry about it.”

Louis flashes him a smile as their teacher returns to the front of the classroom after sorting all the other groups out and gives a little cough, getting everyone’s attention. “Alright, so as you all have been mumbling about, we’re starting a new unit today. We’ll be working on it in the classroom of course, but you’ll have quite a bit of responsibility to work with your teammates on your own time as well. We’ll start today by going over a bit of the textbook portion of the unit, and I have some handouts explaining the parts of the project that you’re doing on your own time.”

Louis zones out a bit as his teacher starts to ramble, noticing that both Harry and Niall are taking notes on what he’s saying regardless of the fact that he already said they’re getting handouts. Being friends with a nerd like Niall (regardless of how much he tries to deny it, also, being able to down a pint in under thirty seconds doesn’t negate his nerdiness) has its perks. Gemma can be the same way, and it seems like Harry takes after her.

The period is all lecture from there on out, and once the professor actually starts getting into the material Louis of course opens his notebook and pays proper attention.

His eyes keep flitting off to his right though, mostly just because he’s not used to having someone there, really. He can’t help but silently enjoy Harry’s little huffs of breath every now and then, though, and the way he bites his lip as he writes. Louis doesn’t know him particularly well, but he’s a quirky kid and always entertaining to be around.

It’s kind of nice, having him right there to write with. Mixes things up a bit. After all, Louis has already learned all of Niall’s note-taking and listening quirks, there’s no fun in paying attention to him anymore.

The period ends quickly enough and they start packing up to head to their next, Louis yelping and nearly crashing into Harry as Niall snaps the goggles against his left ear before putting them away. “Guess we didn’t need these after all,” he mutters.

Harry gives him an amused look as he pushes himself back up, righting his balance.

“You two are funny,” Harry comments. “Can’t help but notice you banter around from back there.”

Louis’ chest puffs, oddly pleased at knowing that he entertains Harry just as much as Harry had entertained him for the past hour.

“We need to meet up to gather the samples like Jones mentioned,” Niall says, standing up and starting toward the door. Harry and Louis move to follow him. “I’ve got the pond in my garden, I think that’s the right environment and stuff for what we need.”

“Can we do it this weekend?” Harry asks as they exit into the hallway. “That gives us enough time before it’s due on Wednesday.”

“Good with me,” Niall agrees, slinging his bag over his shoulder and saluting the two boys as he heads down the hallway to his next class. Which Louis unfortunately does not have with him.

Harry turns to Louis expectantly, clearly waiting for an answer that Louis forgot to give.

“Oh yeah,” he rushes, “Weekend’s good for me too.”

“Cool, like Sunday afternoon or summat? I guess we can tell Niall on Friday or whatever…”

“I’ll just text him,” Louis suggests as they head in the same direction. “Or, wait, you could too. Let me give you both of our numbers.”

Louis holds his hand out for Harry’s phone and he passes it to him after unlocking it with a bit of fumbling.

“You and Niall seem like you’ve got similar work ethics,” he says, making small talk as he plugs the numbers in, trying to work Harry’s strange model of a phone. “I promise I pull my own and get everything I need to done even if it looks like I’m slacking sometimes.”

“No, no worries!” Harry answers quickly. “I didn’t – didn’t think you did. I mean you’re always studying with Gemma at my house. I figured you did all your stuff.”

Louis laughs, passing Harry his phone back. “I mean, we always mean to study, but we get distracted with one thing or another and just end up fooling around with whatever,” he laughs off.

Harry looks confused for a moment, then nods. “’Kay,” he says. “I get that. Gotta run to class, though, I guess I’ll see you Friday.”

“See ya, Harold,” Louis chirps, turning left as Harry goes right.

*

Louis makes it through the rest of the school day with little event, finally getting his caffeine fill once lunch rolls around and he slides in with Niall and Liam and Zayn. He sees Harry as he’s waiting in line and gives him a quick wave, receiving one in return but with a notably less bright smile than before.

Maybe he doesn’t like pizza day.

When the end of the day rolls around Louis is sitting in his car outside of the primary school, waiting for his sisters to come out with a notebook in his lap, trying to study for a French exam next week.

He’s also got his phone on and resting on the book but, you know, it’s the thought that counts.

It rings a few minutes later.

“Heya,” he greets, answering Gemma’s call.

“Louis Tomlinson,” she starts, and Louis has absolutely no idea what he did to warrant _that_.

“What’d I do?” he whines, kicking his seat back and putting the book away.

“My brother thinks we’re shagging,” she hisses lowly, and oh, Louis can just _see_ her glare from across town.

“Well why the hell does he think that? And why are you mad at me about it?” There’s absolutely no reason for Harry to think that Louis and Gemma are – oh.

“Oops,” he mumbles before she can respond.

“Why did you tell him that we ‘fool around’ at my place?” she demands.

“I meant like watching the telly! Or playing video games. Just avoiding studying, that’s all I meant.”

“Whatever,” she sighs. “I mean I told him no, obviously, but he isn’t convinced and he’s complaining about being paired with you now for that project.”

“He knows I like blokes, right?” Louis isn’t out to his school – very few people are, actually, and he’s just never given it much thought, considering the whole ‘forever alone’ thing that seems to be going on with his life right now – but everyone important to him knows. He just figured that telling Gemma extended to her whole family knowing.

“Clearly not.”

“Okay, well, I’ll let him know. I don’t get what the big deal is, but okay, sure, I can do that.”

“He’s just been weird about it. As he always is lately, and I’m not in the mood to put up with it. So fix this, please.”

Louis sits up straight as he sees his four sisters come out of the building and unlocks his door for them. “The girls are here, Gems, I have to go. Talk to you later, _my love_.”

“Ugh,” she grunts and he can hear her moving around too. “Anyway, can I come over to yours after school tomorrow? We can work on French or whatever.”

“Sounds good,” he says, adding a ‘bye’ at the end as the girls clamber into the car, rambling a mile a minute each about their day.

“Louuuu!!” Daisy yells, tugging on the back of his shirt as he turns around to pull out of the parking lot. “I painted a picture today.” He catches a quick glimpse of her adorable, very four-year-old face before he turns around to drive. Her blue eyes are bright and there are bits of blue paint splattered on her blonde hair as well.

“I’m sure it’s lovely, Crazy Daisy,” he says. “You’ll have to put it on the refrigerator when we get home.”

“Mmhmm!” she squeaks, settling back into her seat.

“Lottie got a C on a test!” eight-year-old Fizzy shouts from the back, making the ten-year-old up front groan and hide her face in her hands.

“I don’t know why he had to know that!” she grumbles.

“Aww, it’s okay,” Louis says, patting her knee. “You’re ten, for crying out loud. Doesn’t mean anything right now.”

And so it goes for the rest of the fifteen-minute drive home, the girls playing a round-robin of catch up of their day and demanding answers out of Louis as well, which he playfully gives.

When they clamber out of the car at home and run up the front stoop, he saunters along behind them, pulling his phone out to shoot Harry a text before he tries to make Gemma’s life even more of an awkward hell.

_hey mate, u there?_

He gets a response as he hangs his coat up inside, kicking his shoes off and hearing his mother praise Daisy’s new work of art from the kitchen.

**yea why ?**

“Louis, did you want a snack or something?” he hears his mother call as he makes his way up the stairs to his room, dragging his backpack along the steps beside him.

“I’m fine until dinner Mum, thanks!”

_listen so this is awkward, but i think u might’ve taken something i said earlier the wrong way_

He drops down on his bed, clicking the telly on and turning it to a mindless comedy.

**ok and ???**

Might as well be blunt. _i’m not shagging ur sister_

**she told u to say that, didn’t she**

Louis groans and rolls over, falling into a more comfortable position. _well she called me to say u took what i said the wrong way . by fooling around i meant that we just fuck off with our studying or w/e, not that we’re actually fucking_

It’s a few minutes before Harry responds to that one, and Louis gets caught up in the show on TV before he looks down and notices that he has a new message.

**you have a way with words**

He smirks before responding. _i’m gay, u know. i promise i’m not with gemma at all. she’s like a sister to me._

Harry takes even longer to respond to that, and Louis tries to get lost in the show. He doesn’t expect Harry to have a negative reaction to that – he’s Gemma’s brother after all, and she, her whole family really, they’re all great. But then again he doesn’t know Harry all that well and really, who knows what’s going on in his head.

He responds within fifteen minutes.

**oh ok. i hope you didnt feel like u had to tell me that or anything. sorry if gemma made it sound like im an arse i was kind of just messing with her.**

Louis laughs, breathing a slight sigh of relief. _lmao i get it harold. also i figured u knew anyway , not a big deal :)_

**my names not harold jsyk**

Louis laughs, mocking a gasp just for the hell of it. _why didn’t u tell me ? ive been calling u that all day sheesh_

**lol its not a big deal i don’t mind it :) i just thought i’d tell u. gemma will bite ur head off if she hears u say it though its kind of her pet peeve idk why**

Louis smiles. Yes, that’s very Gemma, the overprotective and anal sister that she is. _well i’ll just have to keep at it then, harold. guess i have a death wish._

They text back and forth, on and off for nearly an hour, as Louis finishes his TV show and his mother calls him down to dinner. He finds himself wondering why he had brushed off that bouncy, slightly younger curly-headed boy on the couch or in the den so many times in the past. Well – not brush him off so much, as he had never done that, but he does think they would make great friends and wishes that he’d talked to him sooner.

Harry’s a hilarious person, quick-witted and full of absolutely _terrible_ but at the same time wonderful jokes. He seems pretty smart too – maybe not Niall-levels of organization and attentiveness to grades, but he’s definitely got a book-smart head on his shoulders.

Needless to say, later that night he finds himself looking up meme Instagram accounts to send to Harry, screenshotting the funniest ones after finding out that he has a proclivity for Internet humor as well as bad puns.

One of the last things that Louis reads before he falls asleep is **why do u think i look like a frog. i don’t look like a frog. i’m not pepe or whatever the hell his name is.**

All Louis has to say is that is, _i bet ur making a face like pepe’s right now aren’t u_

He gets a string of unamused emojis in response followed by a few frogs and bunnies. Somehow he isn’t surprised.

*

Louis makes it out of bed on time the next morning, making homeroom and all. (He still didn’t have time for tea or coffee, and Niall still has to hear his diatribe complaining about it.)

They don’t have Biology on their B days, but when Louis passes Harry in the hall later that afternoon he shoots him a wave with a soft grin, and Harry returns the gesture.

The day passes quickly enough, and soon he’s walking out to his car with Niall trailing behind him. “Are you picking up the girls today?”

“Nope,” Louis says, popping the P. “Lottie and Fizzy have some assembly they have to stay over for and Mum is getting Daisy and Phoebe, they have some doctor appointment I think.”

“Can I come back with you?” The boy is bubbly and bright beside him, and even though anyone else might find him verging on annoying, Louis is only ever endeared by his attitude.

“Gemma is coming over too, she’ll be here any second. But yeah you can come.”

“Sweet mate, thanks.” Niall moves to slide into the passenger side of the car while Louis steps into the driver’s seat, but he’s stopped by a loud “Shotgun!” coming from Gemma hustling over from the other end of the parking lot.

Louis cracks up. “Hey, you’d better get in the back, don’t piss her off,” he warns his friend. He cranks down his window to stick his head out and sees her hurrying over, with Harry scampering behind her.

Niall grumbles as he slips into the backseat and Gemma slides into the front, Harry coming up to Louis’ window.

“Uh, do you mind if I…?” He looks a tad nervous, like he might be intruding on something.

Louis just laughs and reaches behind himself to unlock the back door. “Hop in, Harold.”

Harry jumps in hurriedly, almost as if he’s afraid that Louis is going to rescind the offer.

“What did you call him?” Gemma snaps as she buckles her seatbelt and turns the radio on.

“Harold? You know, the full-length version of Harry or whatever?” Louis says absentmindedly as he pulls out of his parking spot, his conversation with Harry last night coming back to him.

“That’s not his name,” she says, popping a piece of chewing gum into her mouth and passing the pack around the car.

“Don’t get gum on my seats,” Louis says. “Harold, do you mind the nickname?”

Harry coughs, glancing at his sister quickly before sitting up straighter and answering, “Nah. It’s nice. Different.”

Louis smirks and looks at Gemma out of the corner of his eyes only to find her rolling her own. “The Harold has spoken,” he says with a wink in the rearview mirror.

He thinks that Harry might be blushing just a tad. Or maybe he needs to clean his mirror.

*

When Louis stumbles into school the next morning he thinks that he deserves a medal, making it there only five minutes late into homeroom. He had had Niall, Gemma, and Harry over until ten last night, well after his mother and sisters got home, the four of them in the middle of a Mario Kart tournament in the den. Pairing up randomly, Louis found that he and Harry were quite the team when it came to besting the other two. Mixed with a delivery order of pizza, the time had flown.

They never got much French done after all, him and Gemma, but given that the exam is next week he shrugged it off with little worry.

He trudges through his first classes, more than ready for Friday to be over and the weekend to start, but when he packs up his things in maths and runs ahead to catch up with the already-moving Niall, he remembers that biology is next and that means he’s seeing Harry again.

Louis realizes that the rush of happiness he feels at that might be something he needs to stop and think about but then again – well, he’s a new friend, right? It’s, like, natural for him to want to get to know him a little better.

Louis tries to shake it off as he and Niall drop into their usual desk and he turns around to see if Harry is there.

He is in the room, with his bag on his shoulder and just about to sit down, and Louis waves him over.

Harry’s face scrunches up, and he sort of looks like a disgruntled frog again, but – in a cute way. It works, like he’d been trying to tell him over text a few nights ago. Louis giggles as Harry walks over, leaning against their table and giving a nod hello to Niall, who’s currently setting up the table for the lab that they _do_ have today.

“Hey,” he greets Louis.

“Hey yourself,” Louis says back. “Why didn’t you bring your chair over?”

Harry’s face scrunches again and he shakes his curls out, looking back toward his regular desk and then to Louis again. “We’re not working on the project today.”

“No, but just come sit with us. If you want to, of course.” Louis starts to backtrack, wondering if Harry maybe had a routine he liked. Shoot, that’s probably it, and he probably likes his normal lab partner, and Louis is looking like a clingy weirdo older guy even though all he wanted to do was talk to Harry this period and –

“Oh, well if you don’t mind,” Harry says quickly, biting his lip.

“I mean, if you wanted to work with whoever you normally work with, of course, but I’m sure it’s not a big deal if we just team up as three today…”

Louis trails off and then Niall buts in with a “Nah, look, I’ll go work with Maddy, Harry.” He stands up, and Louis realizes that he had never taken anything out of his bag and that he’d set the table perfectly up for two – the standard way, not in his strange little organized chaos he usually works with.

“Have fun, boys!” Niall says as he skips down the aisle, earning a stern glare from their teacher as he enters the room.

Harry shrugs and steps behind Louis, sliding into Niall’s seat and letting his bag fall.

Their teacher passes out handouts for the lab they’re doing, and Louis glances over it briefly as he makes his way back to the front of the class to explain it.

“Test tubes and chemicals and reactions and shit,” Louis mumbles.

“I guess it fits with the pond sampling and report we have to write all together,” Harry adds, underlining a few things on their sheet.

“Think we can blow the classroom up?” Louis whispers.

Harry snorts, covering his mouth quickly and earning a glance from their teacher.

“Well? Do you wanna?” Louis teases with a grin.

Harry huffs, his hair puffing up a little, and rolls his eyes.

Their teacher continues on, going over the standard safety procedures that they’ve all heard a hundred times before.

“Thanks for having me over yesterday,” Harry whispers, doodling absentmindedly in his notebook. “Sorry if it put you on the spot or something and you just wanted to hang out with Niall and Gemma. I was ready to walk home like with her but she said that I should go with her to yours.”

Louis thinks it’s weird that Gemma told Harry to come with her, but he certainly isn’t complaining. Harry is a hoot, gangly and funny and loud and smart, just all over the place. He fits in well. And Louis tells him as much. “No, you’re always welcome. It was fun, I’m glad you came.”

Harry shoots him a small smile just as they get handed a few vials of what they’ll need for the lab. Louis takes them, passing half to Harry as they look at the labels and start marking things down in their lab books.

They pass more jokes between each other – really, nothing better than the crap they were texting each other Wednesday night – as they get into the project, and Louis can feel the time fly by.

“Hey, could you pass me the –” he hears from Harry just as he starts to pour one of the tubes into their main bottle.

“No, wait, just record this for me,” Louis tries to insist, but all of a sudden Harry is reaching across him as quickly as he can and grabbing the vial out of his hands…

…Just as their bottle bubbles over. And by bubbles, Louis realizes that there are literal bubbles, colored a tinge yellow and getting all...over…their desk.

It smells kind of weird, too.

“Fuck,” Harry curses under his breath and, wow, okay – maybe not the moment for this but Louis realizes just how much he appreciates that word out of Harry’s mouth.

Behind them, Louis can hear Niall laugh his arse off and whip out his phone to take pictures. “Gemma’s gonna love these!” he shouts.

“Put your phone away, Horan,” their teacher insists, scrambling to open the windows while he shoos Harry and Louis away from their table.

Louis sidles over toward Niall, Harry by his side, as he asks, “Is that like…toxic or something?”

“Well there’s a reason you’re wearing goggles and gloves,” their teacher points out and Niall smirks, sneaking his phone out again and snapping an incredibly unattractive picture of Louis in his getup.

“Don’t worry, no one has to go to the hospital or anything. I’d rather not have any of you handle this, though, so just take the rest of the period off,” he sighs. “If you still have your work station going record what you have now and please _carefully_ clean it up. There are only twenty minutes left anyway.”

Louis gives Harry a quick glance, shrugging with a small sigh. Harry just rolls his eyes again, but there’s a smile peeking at the corners of his mouth. They head back to the table to grab their bags, listening to the sighs of relief around them.

“Sorry, Sir,” Louis says when they come up on the mess. “It was definitely an accident, I’d never try to give you trouble like that.”

“I know, Louis, it happens to the best of us.”

“Do you need help cleaning?”

“Yeah, we don’t mind hanging back to do whatever you need,” Harry adds, his green eyes bright and earnest.

Their teacher looks up at them, and although he clearly looks a bit frustrated, there’s kindness in his eyes. “I appreciate the offer, but I’d really rather keep students away from the mess. Do me a favor, when you leave here, grab Ms. Schultz from the lounge and tell her there was an accident, I’ll have her give me a hand.”

Harry nods, grabbing both his and Louis’ backpacks and sighing at the ruined notebooks on the desk. “We’ll do that, Sir.”

“Yeah, and sorry again,” Louis adds, taking his bag from Harry.

They leave before anyone else – the others are all still clearing their desks – and Louis crosses the hall to the lounge quickly bob his head in and let the other teacher know that she’s needed.

He comes out to find Harry leaning against the lockers and is a bit relieved to see that he didn’t just fuck off anywhere. He thinks about how all of Harry’s probably incredibly detailed notes from the semester are soaked in chemicals now and feels a pang of guilt.

“Sorry about messing all that up,” he says, walking toward Harry and leaning against the locker on his side so he’s facing the boy. “Also, like, I fucked up your notes, and that’s really shitty too.”

Harry shrugs, pocketing his phone. “I can get them from Niall, we both can, Jones’ll understand. Or Gemma probably has old ones. I type mine up every few weeks anyway, so it’s only a few classes’ worth of stuff that I’m missing.”

“Oh. That’s smart.”

“You can have them too if you need it. You probably do.”

Louis shrugs, slipping his bag on his shoulders. “I mean…if you don’t mind, that’d be helpful.”

“Yeah, no problem,” Harry answers eagerly. They start walking down the hall, the only ones in it, and Louis isn’t quite sure where they’re headed.

“What’ve you got next?” Louis asks, wanting to make sure that he’s not making Harry late for his next class.

“Just gym. Right before lunch, of course.”

Louis makes a face. “That’s a pain in the arse. I think we’re headed the right way, though.”

“Mmhmm,” Harry mumbles, scuffing his trainers along the old tile of the school floor.

“Do you need to do anything before or whatever? I mean, that doesn’t make sense, sorry, but feel free to tell me to get lost.”

“No, no, you’re fine.” Harry looks up and gives him a crooked half-smile. “Do you wanna go sit outside or something? We have like fifteen minutes until the bell and neither of us seem to have anything to do.”

“Yeah, I think the weather’s good,” Louis responds, and oh – shit, what a stupid thing to say. He’s literally making conversation with Harry about the weather, of all things. He probably sounds like he’s with him out of pity right now, right after he messed up Harry’s notes and everything.

He’s brought out of that annoying train of thought when Harry pushes a side door open and a rush of semi-cool air blows past them, spring coming in quite nicely. They both slip through the door and Harry drops on the second step, letting his bag rest behind him. Louis does the same.

“I feel like I can breathe better now,” Louis says after a minute or so of silence. “I think we might’ve stunk up the whole hall with that mess.”

Harry chuckles, picking at his fingers. He doesn’t make eye contact with Louis in a response, and he doesn’t for a few minutes after, either.

“Hey,” Louis says, giving Harry’s shoulder a little nudge. “Everything okay?”

Harry gives him a smile, still looking at his hands. “’M good, yeah.”

“Good is good,” Louis declares lamely.

After another minute of watching cars drive by on the street a bit off in the distance, Harry clears his throat and speaks again.

“We’ve only got like ten minutes until class.”

“Yeah,” Louis agrees. “I mean, I don’t mind being late. I’ve been doing pretty well lately, the day we got partnered up was my latest day in a while. But if you wanna make it on time then yeah.”

“I don’t really care,” Harry shrugs. “Also – can I just ask you something?”

“’Course.” Louis folds his feet up and angles himself more to Harry, chin to knees.

He’s be lying if he didn’t say to himself that he had a hunch where this was going.

“When – how, I guess, I don’t know – when did you know that you liked blokes?”

Louis bites his lip, having been expecting the question but not wanting to jump on it all the same.

“You don’t have to answer that if you’re uncomfortable,” Harry adds quickly, before Louis can get a word in anyway. “I was just, you know, wondering.”

“Yeah, no, it’s fine,” Louis says quickly. “I don’t want to make this into an autobiography or anything, but – if you’re asking, I mean, I dated girls for a while like most lads did –”

Harry interrupts him. “I know.”

“Huh?”

“Oh, wait.” Harry blushes. “That’s probably weird, sorry, I spoke before I thought. I just meant that I knew you were with girls. Gemma would mention that you had a girlfriend or whatever and I guess it stuck.”

“Oh. Okay.” Louis shrugs. “I just always ended up seeing them like I saw your sister, I guess. They were all pretty. But it stayed at pretty for me, I never felt like describing them in a way like Niall or any of my other friends talked about the girls they were seeing. And when I took a step back, thinking there was something wrong with me or whatever, I realized that when I wasn’t overthinking it and just…you know, letting my brain do it all, my mind always went to other blokes, and I had always put up posters of male celebrities in my room. In hindsight…” Louis stops to chuckle for a second. “My mum wasn’t all that surprised when I told her, and that’s probably why.”

Harry smiles. “Who’s your favorite?” he asks. “Celebrity, that is.”

“David Beckham, of course. Who else?”

Harry shrugs, more lightheartedly than before. “I mean, I’ve always gone for David Hasselhoff, myself.”

Louis shoots him a grin. “Good choice.”

Harry stays quiet for a few more minutes, going back to his nails.

“It was kind of scary, you know,” Louis says, breaking the silence. “Not because I was ashamed or anything. But right now it’s considered different, and especially as someone thirteen, fourteen – fifteen years old, different isn’t always the first thing you want to be.”

“I like how you put that,” Harry whispers after a few seconds.

“Yeah.”

“Who was the first person you told? If you don’t mind saying, of course.”

“Hey,” Louis says, scooting a bit closer to Harry. “It’s cool, you can ask me whatever, I don’t care. If I did I’d just sidestep the question or whatever.”

“Thanks.”

“I told your sister.”

“Oh.”

“We were drunk in your basement one night off of some liquor your parents had brought back from Ireland – do you remember that time she got grounded for a month? Yeah, that was it. – and I just said, right out of the blue, drunk off my arse, ‘Liam Payne has a really nice cock.’”

Harry blinks at him slowly. “When did you see Liam Payne’s cock?”

Louis snorts. “I think it was one of Niall’s pool parties or summat and he had pulled Liam’s trunks down – it is huge, did you know that? – anyway, she just stared at me and asked if it was ‘really nice’ like I wish I had it, or ‘really nice’ like I wanted it in my mouth. And I said the latter. And that was that.”

Harry screws his mouth up in a way that makes it look like he’s contemplating something. “That’s a really funny story,” he says after a moment.

“Thanks. I try.”

“A lot funnier than rambling to your sister’s best friend on the stairs outside of school when you should be in gym class.”

“C’mere,” Louis says, letting Harry curl into his arms. “First of all, no, this is plenty funny, because we were basically just kicked out of class after I almost blew our desk up. So there.”

Harry laughs, burying his face in Louis’ jacket for a second before pulling away. “I just…thank you a lot, Louis.”

“Any time, Harold.”

“I think…like you said, I’m not scared.”

“Good. That’s good.”

“Yeah. It’s just the kind of thing you psych yourself up about for a long time, freaking out about and everything. But now I feel better.”

Louis smiles, and his heart feels rather full in this moment. “I’m happy for you.”

“Yeah?”

“Definitely.”

“Okay.”

They sit in silence for a few minutes, and Louis fights the urge to check his phone for the time. He doesn’t want Harry to think that he’s trying to rush him back to class or anything, though he figures this period is probably shot for the both of them.

“I’m gay,” Harry says, not directly to Louis, but he answers him anyway.

“Me too.”

Harry makes eye contact with him then, and his face looks a hundred times lighter than it was at the beginning of this conversation.

“High-five?” Louis asks, holding his hand out. Harry takes it, and Louis pulls both of them to a standing position.

“It’s way too late to make class worth it,” Harry points out, giving his legs a shake.

“Yeah, but now we have like an hour and a half to get lunch,” Louis points out, starting down the stairs instead of back up into the building.

“The cafeteria’s not open yet?” Harry points out, staying where he is.

“Nah, come with me. I can leave campus for lunch anyway but because it’s early I’ll just convince the guard that I have to take you home for medication or something…you use an inhaler, right? We’ll grab McDonald’s.”

“Oh. Yeah, that’ll work.” Harry starts down the stairs as well. “But I don’t have any money on me.”

“I can pick up the tab,” Louis offers. “But if you really want to or whatever just pay me back later.”

“I’ll do that.”

They both power walk to Louis’ car, trying to stay as subtle as possible, considering that they’re technically supposed to be in class at the moment.

They make it, though, and slide in with a breath of relief on both of their parts.

“Hey Louis?” Harry asks as the car starts and Louis puts the radio on a low volume.

“Yeah?”

“Thanks again. Like, a lot.”

Louis gives Harry’s shoulder a squeeze, happy to find that he seems relaxed and happy himself. “It was really nothing on my part. I’m, you know, honored that you felt you could come out to me like that.”

“You make it easy.”

Neither of them drop their grins the entire way to the restaurant.

*

“I’m going to Niall’s!” Louis calls, finishing up his hair in the mirror hanging in the hall and zipping his jacket up.

“Why?” Phoebe peeps, her little blonde head sticking out from the corner.

Louis laughs, glancing down to her. “Well I was letting Mum know, Pheebs, but I have to work on a project for school with him and my other friend Harry.”

“Oh.” Her face screws up in concentration. “Have fun Louis.”

He gives his face a final glance in the mirror – yeah, it’s just a Sunday night and it’s just Niall’s backyard, but he wants to look nice, okay? There’s nothing strange about wanting to look put together. – and leans down to her level, giving the four-year-old a kiss atop the head. “I will. Go to bed on time for Mum, okay?”

She huffs and takes a step back, rolling her eyes exaggeratedly. “’Course I will Louis.”

“Go on then, finish watching your show or something.” He gives her a pat on the back as she skips back into the den.

“Mum, did you hear me?” Louis calls again, slipping his shoes on and grabbing his backpack. “I’m off to Niall’s for a bit.”

“Have fun, Lou,” she calls from the other end of the house.

“Will do,” he says as he leaves.

It’s about a fifteen minute drive to Niall’s place – he lives closer to the edge of the town, considering his sizable garden and all. Louis had offered to pick up Harry but given that it would have been out of his way Harry had insisted that he just have his parents drop them off.

Friday afternoon had been fun. And no – he doesn’t mean it like that, not that he actively enjoyed Harry pouring his heart out on the steps of their school. He did mean that it was an honor when he had told Harry that. But lunch with him, Louis had enjoyed that. Harry acted freer than he ever had before and they spent a considerable amount of their meal talking about all the celebrities they fancied or cringed at the ones they had fancied in the past.

Louis gets that. He remembers that once he’d sobered up the next day after he told Gemma he went back over and they went through a pile of her gossip magazines, rating all the blokes as fit or not. It was just nice, to finally be able to openly talk about it to someone in that way, and he was happy that Harry got that, too.

And he’s just…fun to be around. Magical, kind of. Louis wishes that he had started a friendship with him earlier – he’s always known him, always said hi, always made small talk when he was over at Gemma’s house, and they’d include Harry in their board or video games often, but they rarely held an actual conversation or tried to get to know each other.

Oh well. He guesses that he has that now.

He pulls up to Niall’s and sees that the gate to his garden is wide open, so he forgoes the front door and enters through the back. The sun is starting to set, and it paints a beautiful picture along the trees. Louis gets lost for a moment, taking his phone out to snap a quick picture because he knows that Daisy would appreciate it, with her love for photography and painting and art in general, when someone bumps into him from behind just as he’s pocketing the device.

“Sorry, sorry,” Harry mutters, steadying himself with a hand on Louis’ shoulder.

“You’re good, mate.” Louis flashes him a smile and Harry dimples in return. (Harry has deep dimples, Louis thinks. If he were a tiny, ant-sized human then Harry’s dimples would be like a crater.)

“Have you seen Niall?” Harry asks.

“Nah.” Louis points toward the pond in the corner of the yard with a shed beside it. “He’s probably in there, though.

“Did you have a good weekend?” Harry asks as they walk down the yard, swinging his arms back and forth.

“Yeah, pretty chill. There was a party at Liam’s last night so I was there for a bit.”

“Hmm.” Harry pauses for a second, and Louis turns to look at him before he starts walking again. “Do you, y’know, like him?” Harry asks.

Louis bursts out laughing and Harry looks taken aback. “Sorry,” he scrambles. “I’m not laughing at you. I just think the idea of Liam and I is kind of a bit out there. We hang out often but our personalities…aren’t fit for anything like that. Plus I’m pretty sure he’s solely into girls.”

“Oh.” Louis could swear that Harry is blushing a bit, but that might be the sunset. “I just thought since you said…you know, the other day…”

“That was just thirteen-year-old me being excited about seeing a fit bloke’s cock for the first time, mate.” Louis laughs. “Nothing there.”

Harry shrugs. He opens his mouth as if he’s about to say something but all of a sudden Niall pops out of the shed, arms full of buckets and shovels and, thankfully, work gloves.

“Evening, lads!”

“Hey Neil,” Louis greets, grabbing a bucket from him that’s about to topple over.

“Hiya,” Harry says, doing the same.

Niall dumps the rest on the ground anyway, dropping down beside it. Harry and Louis glance at each other and shrug, doing the same. (Louis had considered wearing a nicer pair of jeans today…he’s quite glad he didn’t.)

“So I’ve got these little containers…” Niall holds up mini plastic bowls that remind Louis of what his mother stores dressings and butter in. “I figured we could put our samples in them and mark them up with this –” He gestures to a handful of permanent markers by his side. “And then we’ll just have it all ready to go for tomorrow. Sound good?”

Louis and Harry share a nod.

Niall passes them each a pair of heavy-duty plastic gloves, and they get to work, leaning over the pond on their knees.

“Don’t fall,” Louis jokes toward Harry. “Unless you want to fulfill your frog fate.”

Harry gives him a look that’s probably supposed to be an annoyed glare, but all it comes off as is grumpily cute. Louis flashes him a small smile in return and Harry’s face softens even more.

“Hey!” Niall calls, waving his hand between them. “Cut whatever you’re doing out. Who knows what swims in here after dark and I don’t want to find out.”

Louis bites his lip, turning back to the pond and dipping a colander in – he sure hopes that Niall got his mother’s permission for this – straining the dirt and sand out and sifting the water into a bowl.

“Well I do like frogs,” Harry says after a minute, doing the same as Louis. “So I wouldn’t mind.”

“I had a pet frog in primary school, you know,” Louis adds, marking the date and time on a full bowl of pond…water (it’s more like sludge, because this particular colander has rather wide slots, but he digresses). “Well, he lived in the garden, but I saw him every now and then. He was cute.”

Harry giggles, and Louis just wants to make him do that again. And again. It’s a sort of laughter that sounds like the ripple in the pond water, going on and on until it fades away into serenity. “Is he still there?” Harry asks.

“Haven’t seen him in a few years, no,” Louis laughs. “Rest in peace, little froggy.”

“D’aww,” Harry says with yet another giggle.

Niall groans from beside Louis, who gives him a nudge.

“What’s wrong with you now? Not having fun collecting sludge in your garden?”

Harry snorts this time.

“You two are gross,” Niall says, and both of them fall silent.

Louis shifts, making noise with the water and their tools, and tries to laugh it off. “What’re you on about, Niall?”

Niall huffs loudly and looks pointedly between Harry and Louis before turning back to his work. “I’m not saying anything.”

Louis shifts again, muttering “I hate you, Niall” under his breath while Harry seems to be continuing what he was doing before.

And, well. He didn’t think he was that obvious. Louis knows that he doesn’t feel completely platonic toward Harry – and that’s also the understatement of the century. He absolutely has a crush on Harry, he isn’t blind and he’s quite in tune with his feelings, thank you very much.

He’s just been trying to repress it, deny it a bit, for a few reasons. Harry is Gemma’s brother, yes, and he knows that Gemma would just make fun of him for the rest of eternity but be happy and supportive about it in the end. Mostly, it’s that after Friday afternoon he didn’t want to be the one to make the first move, if there was a move to be made at all. It would feel wrong, almost, to be that person Harry trusted the most and then come back around and have it seem like he was taking advantage of that trust.

So Louis recognizes the feelings he has for Harry, yes, of course. But he figures that whatever will be will be and that he’s not going to rush hurriedly into anything. They’ve got time. So casual flirtation it is.

Thanks to Niall, though, that “casual” cover is now blown.

They work in silence, and Louis can feel the tension between him and Harry. It isn’t – it’s not like a negative, painful tension, or anything, but it’s something unspoken that’s there. It’s probably been there to a degree since they fell asleep texting each other inane things that first night.

After about ten more minutes they have all the samples that their assignment sheet had called for. Niall stands up and steps back, brushing his hands on his jeans, “Did you wanna stay a bit, lads? I can get a fire going out here and we can have a beer or two.”

Louis looks to his right, hoping Harry isn’t put off by what happened a few minutes ago, and he’s met with a timid smile.

“Sounds good to me,” he says, looking at Louis first and then Niall. “You’re mom’s good with the drinking?”

“Yeah, she’ll be fine.” Niall waves him off and twists his back before starting toward the house. “If you could just put the stuff we used back in the shed I’ll be back out in a few minutes.”

“Yeah, yeah, we got it,” Louis says, standing up with Harry following suit. They put what they need for their project aside and gather the strainers, gloves, and shovels up, walking toward the small building.

Louis gets there first, holding the door open for Harry.

“Thanks,” he mumbles as they step into the dark room, and Louis flicks the light on as well.

“Here’s a towel,” Louis says as he grabs one and tosses it to Harry while taking one for himself. They stand in silence for a moment, drying the tools, until Louis gives himself a shake from the inside, deciding that he can’t be a baby about this and risk scaring Harry off.

“Sorry about Niall,” he says quickly. “He’s…he comes off strong, and nothing embarrasses him or bothers him, so he figures everyone else is the same way sometimes. I’ll yell at him later.”

Harry looks up at Louis, pausing his drying for a moment, before shaking his head slightly and resuming the action. “It’s fine.” He laughs a bit. “Don’t yell at him.”

“Okay, well, tell me if you’re uncomfortable or whatever. Because I didn’t –” Louis stops himself, not wanting to say that he didn’t mean to come off as flirtatious to Harry and ruin any and all chances with him before it starts. He’s watched far too many romantic comedies to not know that miscommunication is always easily avoidable.

“I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable either, so just let me know if you feel weird.” There. It’s not…poetic, but it’s not a lie either.

Harry sets the strainer he was holding down on a shelf and walks toward Louis and the door. “Hey, I said it’s fine,” he says, looking Louis dead in the eye, and wow, Harry’s are a shocking and beautiful green, even in the dim light they’re in. “Really. Don’t, like, baby me or anything.”

Louis sets down the now-dry shovel he was holding as well and folds up the towel, hanging it where he found it. “Yeah,” he answer softly. “I’m not trying to. It’s just…”

“I know, I’m Gemma’s brother,” Harry says quickly, bringing his hands between them to fiddle with. It seems to be a nervous habit. “Like, I get if that’s weird for you, or whatever, or if I seem like a kid, I get that too, just don’t want you to think you’re making _me_ feel weird, because you’re not. You’re a great guy, Louis. I like spending time with you.” Harry finishes his mini-monologue and let’s a long breath out, swinging his hands down again.

“I like spending time with you too,” is all Louis can think to say, and then the door swings open.

“You’d better not be –” Niall cuts off the end of his sentence, _thank God_ , when he sees the two of them and holds up the case of beer with one hand. “Okay, good. Look what we’ve got!”

He turns around again and heads toward the fire he got started in his family’s ceramic bowl on their patio, and Harry just looks at Louis and laughs, heading out too.

Okay. Louis can do this.

They sit around the fire pit, drinking and laughing together. It’s not too late – just past eight – and Louis relaxes into the lawn chair, sat in between Harry and Niall.

“Dunno why we’re just hanging out with you now,” Niall says after a bit, directed toward Harry. “You’re cool.”

“Cool,” Louis says, mockingly. “What an original word, Niall. Harold must be so flattered here.” He leans back and squints up at the stars, picking out the few constellations he knows of.

Niall stretches out too while Harry giggles. “How’d you put it, then?”

“Mmm,” is all Louis says.

“Yeah, Lou,” Harry adds in, and Louis’ spine tingles at the nickname even though it’s a simple one. It rolls off of Harry’s tongue nicely – it fits. “How’d you describe me?”

And Louis can feel things start to speed up, to move more quickly now, but – he’s asking him, Harry’s asking for this, and if his words in the shed are to judge anything by, he wants it.

So he’ll say. “Curly,” he starts.

“What an original word, Louis,” Niall says, copying him.

“’M not done, I’ve got more than one up my sleeve,” Louis retorts.

“Go on then.”

“Smart, kind, funny,” he lists off on his fingers dramatically.

“I’m all of that too,” Niall points out, pretending to be wounded.

“Says you,” Louis shoots back. “This is about Harold, we’re inducting him into our friend group.”

“Are you?” Harry asks with a lilt of amusement to his voice.

“Mmhmm. You’re not getting away from us now.”

He can hear Harry shift around in his chair, and it sounds like he’s turning in to face Louis. “Don’t think I’d want to anyway.”

Niall groans. “You two are being gross again.”

“Niall,” Louis says loudly. “You can’t say things like that, it’s rude. You could be making people uncomfortable, for all you know.”

“That’s my job.”

“You’ve had too much to drink.”

“I’m on my second beer.”

Louis huffs loudly and turns in so he’s facing Harry and his back is to Niall. He rolls his eyes, mouthing “Sorry” exasperatedly.

Harry shrugs. “I think you’re funny, Niall.”

Niall cackles with laughter. “See! Someone appreciates me.”

“Nooo, don’t encourage him,” Louis groans.

Harry shrugs and reaches his hand out, knuckles brushing along the armrest of Louis’ chair. “’M warm and fuzzy,” he says.

Louis giggles at his drawl. “Do we have a lightweight here?”

“I’m fine,” he answers, but he smiles wide and lazily.

Louis returns the look and traces Harry’s knuckles with his own, and the thinks that he probably shouldn’t get a zing from a brush of bones.

“You’re fluffy, too,” he says, continuing his description. “And cute. Very cute.”

“I’m going to call Gemma,” Niall announces loudly.

“No you’re not,” Louis shoots back. “Unless you’re inviting her over for a drink or something.”

“Niall, are you trying to pull my sister?” Harry calls out, louder than he needs to.

“No,” he shoots back, but the speed with which he does makes Louis laugh a little. “I’m just looking out for her younger brother’s virtue.”

Harry pulls his hand back from Louis’ to rub his eyes. “Well you don’t need to.” He checks his phone and sighs, sitting up straighter. “I have to be back home soon.” After a pause, he adds quickly, “Not for a curfew or anything. I have a paper due tomorrow and I have to finish it.”

Louis sits up with him. “I’ll drive you.”

“Are you good to drive?” Niall asks, moving to start to put out the fire.

“Yeah, I just had one. Hey, did you want us to grab the stuff for class, or have you got them?”

Niall waves them off. “I don’t trust you lot with them anyway, best keep them here.”

Louis rolls his eyes. “Sure, Niall.” He walks over to him and gives him a thump on the back. “See you tomorrow.”

“See ya. Bye, Harry,” Niall says with a wave. “For all I tease, I’m serious, it’s nice hanging out with you.”

Harry zips his jacket back up and nods. “Same here. See you tomorrow, yeah?”

Niall gives him a cheesy thumbs-up and goes back to the fire as Harry and Louis turn around and start toward the gate again.

“Thanks for taking me,” Harry says as they slip into Louis’ car. “I could’ve called my mum or whatever, I know my place is a little out of your way.”

“’S no problem. I just might need some instruction when we get closer, I’m not used to going this way in the dark. You can put music on if you want.”

Harry fiddles with the radio for a bit once they get on the road, and he finally settles on The Fray album already programmed into Louis’ car. _Look after You_ comes on, and he says “This is my favorite one,” softly.

Louis looks toward him, smiling. “Mine too. It’s my alarm, actually, which doesn’t make sense because you usually hate the songs you end up picking for those, y’know? But I like waking up to the softness of it. Although I guess I’m not the best at getting up on time all the time.”

“Nah, that makes sense. They’re touring here in May, you know. Well, Manchester, at least.”

“Oh really? I’d love to see them. We should go, I can either drive down there or we could take the train. If you’re up for that.” He says it quickly, without thinking, and realizes after the moment passes that it might have just come off as if he were asking Harry out. (Which he wouldn’t mind, but a concert a city away is a bit much right now.)

Harry grins at him, though, not seeming to have taken it that way. “Yeah, definitely. That’d be sick.”

They ride in silence for a while, singing and humming along to the songs as they play. They make throwaway small talk and jokes to each other as well every few minutes, and Louis relishes how easy it comes between them. He’s just so comfortable.

He pulls up to Harry’s house, finally, and Harry unbuckles and turns to face Louis. “Thanks again for the ride. And I’ll take you up on that concert, I’ll find out what our options are for tickets.”

“Yeah, perfect.” The lighting in the car is dim, but Louis can see right into Harry’s lovely green eyes, and the sight is mesmerizing. “I’ll see you in school,” he says softly. “You probably want to eat lunch with your other friends, or something, but I’ll say hi.”

Harry shrugs. “I’ll find you guys for lunch, I’d like that.”

“Okay, cool.”

“Yeah?”

“Mmhmm.”

They’re silent for a moment, and Louis wonders if this is it, now, if one of them is going to make a move and it’ll all be explicit, straightforward. Until now they’d only danced around the topic.

Harry breaks the silence after a few seconds, sighing loudly and unlocking his door. Before he opens it, though, he darts forward and gives Louis a quick peck on the cheek. “Lunch. Tomorrow,” he says as he leans back and getting out. “Bye.” It’s still dark, but Louis can see the smile on his face and it feels like it’s imprinted on his cheek, too.

“Bye,” Louis echoes, giving him a little wave and locking the door after it shuts. He watches Harry run up the path and get inside before pulling away, turning the music back on and humming to himself.

His cheek is still tingling.

His phone vibrates from between the front seats, and when he’s stopped at a red light near his house he glances down at it to find a few new text messages from Gemma.

8:51

**you spent like 5 minutes with my brother in the driveway, not to be a creep or anything but i could see inside ur car the whole time**

8:51

**he’s been drinking hasn’t he**

8:54

**god he’s giddy**

9:05

**don’t break his heart**

The light turns again, and he takes a breath, driving the last half mile home. He’ll respond to Gemma once he’s inside. It sounds like Harry came out to her, too, and God, Louis just wants to wrap that boy up in his arms and tell him how amazing he is. He’s so proud.

As he climbs the steps to his house and unlocks the door, his phone buzzes again.

9:10

**i don’t mean that in a yelling way. i know you’re good. but he’s so happy right now. i want him to be happy always.**

Louis smiles as he hangs his jacket up and kicks his shoes off.

_hey , of course. i wouldn’t expect anything else. and i’m happy right now too._

She responds with a heart.

*

Louis sits down on the curb outside of the front entrance to school, playing on his phone. It’s 3:32, he should be out any minute.

His phone buzzes with a text from his mother, **Will you be home for dinner? xx**

And he responds with a quick, _gonna go to zayn’s, don’t worry about me_

He pockets his phone for a minute and hears a noise behind him, turning around to see the friend in question. “Hey man.”

“Hey.” Niall looks down at him with a clear expression that he won’t be joining him on the cold cement. “Liam’s leaving now, ‘m gonna head out with him.”

“I’ll see you there,” Louis answers. “I’m waiting for Harry.”

“Yeah, Gemma’s coming with us, she’s ahead of me.”

Louis smiles. He swears…his friends are some great wing-people. If that’s a word. Which it should be.

“Did’ya ask him yet?”

“Ask him what?” Louis takes his phone back out and pretends to be oblivious.

“Ask him out, you tit.” Niall gives Louis a quick but swift kick in the small of his back, making him yelp and jump a bit.

“Ow…” Louis scoots over and rubs his back. “We’ve…we’ve been, like, flirting all week, you know. Since you were so wonderful and subtle about it at your place last. And a bit before.”

Niall just stares at him. “Okay, and…?”

Louis groans and tucks his face into his arm.

“He said he likes you, for crying out loud! Didn’t he?”

“Kinda.” Louis lifts his face back up. “It was more like he liked the flirting, I think? And he wasn’t uncomfortable by it.”

“And then Gemma texted you an hour later telling you not to break his heart. Which means that he told her that he likes you.”

Louis is about to answer with another cowardly excuse when he furrows his brows and realizes something. “I didn’t tell you about Gemma’s text.”

Niall pauses where he is, biting his lip. “Well, you know, she told me.”

“Since when do you hang out with Gemma without me?”

Niall shrugs. “We got lunch yesterday when you and Harry ditched again. See, look, you’ve basically already been on a date with him.”

“Oh, God, that wasn’t a date, Niall, it was fucking fast food. Please don’t call that a date ever again, that’s so embarrassing. But no, you’re deflecting, and you wouldn’t be if you were just spending time with her for the hell of it. Niall…”

“Conversation is over!” Niall announces, clapping his hands together loudly. “I have to go, they’re probably bitching about me in the car. See you in a few.” And he scampers off as quickly as he appeared.

“Hey!” Louis yells after him. “Have fun with it!”

And he gets a thumbs-up in return.

Louis checks the time again and it’s nearly 3:40 now. He’s about to shoot Harry a _heyy waiting for ya outside_ accompanied with a frog emoji when he hears another person come up behind him, more quickly than Niall, and come to a halt at the curb.

He looks up, and of course it’s Harry, grinning and dimply, green-eyed and curly and all. “Hiya.”

“Hey.” Louis pockets his phone, taking the hand Harry offers to stand up. “You ready to head out? Niall and Gemma left with Liam.”

“Yeah, all good.” They start heading toward Louis’ car, and Harry keeps talking. “Sorry I’m late. I was talking to Jones, he had our project graded.”

“Oh, did you get it?” Louis turns toward Harry with interest.

“Yep.” Harry whips it out of his backpack with another grin. “Take a look.”

Louis flips through the six-page paper, each of them having been responsible for two on top of their lab work, and finds a 97 at the end. “Heyyy, this is great,” he says, rolling the paper back up and handing it to Harry. “We’re a good team, the three of us.”

“Yeah,” Harry agrees, still smiling as they slide into Louis’ car. “I’m glad I was paired up with you two, you know.”

Louis shoots him a wink as the car starts. “Me too.”

“So like…don’t tell her I said this, or anything,” Harry starts as he fiddles his fingers. “But Gemma fancies Niall, you know.”

Louis laughs. “Funny that. Niall just let it slip they were hanging out one on one the other day.”

“Like a date?” Harry’s attention shoots up.

“Nah, I don’t think so. Not an official one.”

“Oh. Well it still kinda counts, you know? If they like each other and spend time one on one. That counts, I think.”

Louis stops at the red light and turns to look at Harry. “Nope, does not,” he says. He turns back to the wheel. “Because one on one hangouts can be, like, McDonald’s, or something. And I know that if I went to McDonald’s with a bloke I fancy, I’d be embarrassed to call it a date.”

“Oh.” Harry falls silent for a moment. “Well what would you consider a date?”

“Hmm.” Louis swallows, his heart starting to speed up a bit. “I like picnics, don’t you think? Then you can make them all romantic, however you want it to be for the person you’re with, and it’s more thoughtful than just picking a random restaurant. I think. Restaurants are good too.” Shit, he doesn’t want to say the wrong thing and insult something Harry might like. Why does he get himself into conversations like this?

“Or movies,” he continues, trying to broaden his answer so he has a better chance of hitting upon something that Harry likes. “Movie nights are nice. Whether at the cinema or at home, you know, on a couch with a blanket and a bowl of popcorn or whatever. I don’t know. A lot of stuff.”

Harry giggles and Louis sneaks a glance to see him turning toward him with a wide grin. “That all sounds nice,” he says.

“Nice? Alright. What would you go for then?”

“I like concerts,” Harry suggests.

“Well,” Louis starts, and, God, he has to push through this – they’re just being silly, at this point. Which is fun and exciting, but at the same time nerve-wracking. “There could be a bit of a problem there, yeah? Because what if someone wanted to ask the bloke they fancied to a concert, but the right one was still a ways away? Too far away to go without any real dates. What would a lad do then?”

Harry laughs again – Louis wants him to be laughing always – and thinks exaggeratedly. “Maybe a picnic _would_ be a nice tide over, then.”

“You don’t say?”

“Yeah.”

They pull up to Zayn’s, then, Louis having to pause the conversation and figure out where to park with all the cars already there.

“Are his parties always like this?”

“Yeah, it’s a bit of a pain in the arse.”

Louis finds a spot across the street in the grass, and when he pulls his key out of the ignition he turns to Harry instead of exiting the car, taking a breath and trying to steel himself.

“We’re being silly.”

Harry shrugs. “Silly is fun.”

Louis is thrown for a minute, thinking that Harry might be saying he likes the game and that he doesn’t want to go any further. He pauses and nods, unbuckling as if to signal that the conversation is over.

Harry leans toward him quickly though, putting a hand on his shoulder as if he picked up on Louis’ reaction. “Serious is fun too, though, I just meant that – fun. I’m having fun. With you. And I like it any way it comes.”

Louis relaxes into Harry’s touch and laughs. “Do you want to have fun sometime this weekend then? We can do whatever. You pick. But no fast food.”

Harry nods enthusiastically, his curls bouncing. “We could do a picnic. You seem to like the idea.”

Louis grins. “Oh, I’ll make it great, Harold. Proper romantic, I am.”

Harry nods again, accepting. “That sounds fantastic.”

They both get out of the car and Harry walks around the front, meeting Louis before they cross the road.

Louis squeezes his arm, giving him a soft and happy look. “So, date-date, yeah? We’re gonna gives this a go?”

Instead of answering, Harry leans in, and rather than going for Louis’ cheek this time, he plants a kiss on his lips. It’s chaste, but he lingers, and his lips are soft and warm against Louis’ for a few seconds. He pulls back, staying somewhat close, with bright but cautious eyes.

“Yeah,” he answers in a soft whisper. “Let’s give it a go.”

Louis nods, a bit dumbstruck and giddy, sliding his hand from where it had remained on Harry’s arm down to grasp his hand. He squeezes, and Harry laughs once more.

“I love your laugh,” Louis says as they cross the street and toward the house, music already playing from it.

Harry blushes and bumps into Louis’ shoulder with his own. “Thanks.” As they climb the stairs toward the front door he continues, saying, “Scale of one to ten, how much shit will Niall and Gemma give us?”

“Mmm,” Louis says with a contemplative tone. “A bit. Let’s say a 7. But y’know, let’s turn it around on them and start pointing out their flirting.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Louis pecks him on the cheek before the door opens, murmuring “We’ll be the dream team” into his ear.

They’re greeted by Liam, and of course Niall finds them within thirty seconds and starts mouthing off about how he “knew it all along.”

Which he actually did, of course. But it’s not as if Louis can or wants to complain.

(Harry rarely lets go of his hand the entire night. And if Niall and Gemma are a level 7 menace toward Harry and Louis, then Harry and Louis are a level 9 menace toward Niall and Gemma.)


End file.
